Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Jason goes to Holehead--Day 7

Two more movies on Tuesday, but first I must correct an oversight. I forgot to mention the short that played with SLICE AND DICE last Sunday, THE VOICE OF GOD. Ten minutes of time-lapse shots of  daily life in India with voice over in Hindi (I assume)...with no subtitles. Except for one brief bit where a woman's voice in English explains to be careful of suspicious packages, as they might be a bomb. So I assume that's what the rest of the voice-over was about, too. I'm not exactly sure if it was supposed to be un-subtitled. The credits do, after all, list a translator.

Anyway, that was ten minutes I should have added to last Sunday's total, and I'm adding it now (or rather, I added it into my previous post on LIFE OF PI.)

So Holehead Tuesday started with NERVO CRANIANO ZERO, from the Brazilian group (and Thrillpeddlers collaborators) Vigor Mortis, (aka, the team behind the  2009 Holehead hit MORGUE STORY.) Keeping it in the medical realm, a brilliant neurosurgeon believes he has unlocked the secret to unlimited creativity. His chip, melpomene, will stimulate creativity when attached directly to the cranial nerve zero (or, in Portuguese, the title of the film.) But it does more than stimulate creativity. It also controls all necessary body function--including blood flow--making the heart redundant. More than redundant, in fact, if the heart tries to pump while the melpomene is active, the overflow will cause overheating and eventually explosion. That's right, in the first few minutes we're promised an exploding head, and I was just giddy in anticipation. Add a famous writer who likes her fame more than she likes writing anymore. Then add an unfortunate young lady who was just a horribly embarrassing failure on the national Pop Idol show, and you've got the recipe for a wonderful little three-way of sickness, perversion, and gore. Like in MORGUE STORY, they pay homage to classic cult films--most notably this time around is RE-ANIMATOR and SCANNERS--but make it totally their own. Awesome flick!

And, just to keep up the tradition of Holehead never quite following the schedule, the short that was supposed to play with it, MORGUE STREET, didn't play. I don't know if it will be made up at a later date.

And finally the night ended with SATURDAY MORNING MASSACRE, a sort of Scooby-Doo story on acid. A team of two girls, two guys, and a dog are paranormal investigators, but their investigations always end with no ghosts but rather shady politicians, real estate moguls, businessmen, etc. Or, as in the case of the opening scene, a child porn racket (only problem is the cops were already staking it out and their "bust" tainted months of carefully gathered evidence.) Oh, did I skim over the child porn racket? Yeah, this isn't your Saturday morning Scooby-Doo gang, this is serious shit. They do do drugs and screw, and they have trouble with money. And when they come across a real "haunted" house, they really die (oops, spoiler!) Think of it as an adult version of Scooby and the gang meet the family from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But I think I've already given way too much away. Anyway, while it meandered for a bit in the middle, by the end it was some sick, gory fun.

Total Running Time: 174 minutes
My Total Minutes: 306,682

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